University High Suffers Severe Vandalism
University High School faculty, staff and students arrived Wednesday morning to see their campus in ruins.
Vandals did not leave a corner of the 50-acre school undisturbed. Drywall and plaster had been poured into the pool, paint had flooded onto the sidewalks and campus areas such as the baseball field, classrooms and the theater were completely ravaged.
Staff members have already painted over most of the walls in an effort to return a sense of normalcy to the school. Maintenance staff has also been working non-stop in an attempt to clean out the pool.
Unfortunately, the fruits of these efforts will not come soon enough for University’s water polo team. The team has only three weeks left in the season and will be forced to use the facilities at other institutions, including UC Irvine’s pool.
The University High School Aquatic Boosters have offered a reward of $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the vandals. The school is located across the Campus and Culver cross streets from UC Irvine
Anyone with information regarding the incident should call the Irvine Police Department at (949) 724-6000.

Bitter Toxins Trigger Defensive Gut Reactions
UC Irvine researchers have found that the bitterness in toxic foods slows down the digestive process.
The bitter taste triggers the production of a hormone called cholecystokinin that suppresses the appetite, preventing a greater intake of the toxins, and simultaneously slowing the movement of food from the stomach to the small intestine, giving it more time to be expelled. The bitterness also triggers the activation of flucagon-like peptide-1, a protein that stimulates insulin secretion in the pancreas.
The discovery has the potential to improve treatments for cancer and diabetes. Furthermore, it may help explain why certain populations in the world can eat certain foods while others get sick after eating the same food.
Scientists can use the new information to develop medicines that are less bitter, so as to not trigger the defense hormones, therefore allowing the medicine to be absorbed and take effect sooner.
The study appeared in the “Journal of Clinical Investigation.”

Early Alcohol Use Increases Health Risks and Crime
A study led by UC Irvine psychologist Candice Odgers finds that alcohol intake before the age of 15 raises the risk of drug abuse, early pregnancy, criminal behavior and sexually transmitted disease, even in teens without a history of substance abuse or behavioral problems.
Published in the “Psychological Science” journal, the study reiterates that the early teen years are critical for development and involve various cognitive and developmental changes that, when tampered with, make low-risk children three to four times more likely to develop the associated problems.
The study was consistent with prior research and suggested that children should be educated on drug and alcohol prevention regardless of whether they are already at risk or not.
The project is a part of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development study, a 30-year study of more than 1,000 New Zealanders with behavioral problems from 1972 to 1973 who were assessed regularly until age 32.